Ricarda Lang
MdB
Lang in 2022
Leader of Alliance 90/The Greens
Assumed office
29 January 2022
Serving with Omid Nouripour
Deputy
  • Pegah Edalatian-Schahriari
  • Heiko Knopf
  • Marc Urbatsch
Preceded byAnnalena Baerbock
Deputy Leader of Alliance 90/The Greens
In office
16 November 2019 – 29 January 2022
Serving with Jamila Schäfer
Leader
Preceded byGesine Agena
Succeeded byPegah Edalatian-Schahriari
Leader of the Green Youth
In office
October 2017 – November 2019
Serving with Max Lucks
Preceded byJamila Schäfer
Succeeded byAnna Peters
Member of the Bundestag
for Baden-Württemberg
Assumed office
26 October 2021
Preceded bymulti-member district
ConstituencyAlliance 90/The Greens list
Personal details
Born
Ricarda Lang

(1994-01-17) 17 January 1994
Filderstadt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Political partyAlliance 90/The Greens
EducationGerman: Hölderlin-Gymnasium Nürtingen
(high school; graduated, 2012)
Alma materHeidelberg University (did not graduate)
Humboldt University of Berlin (did not graduate)

Ricarda Lang (born 17 January 1994) is a German politician who has been serving as co-leader of the Alliance 90/The Greens since January 2022, alongside Omid Nouripour. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2021. Previously, she was co-deputy leader of the party and spokeswoman for women's policy from 2019 to 2021, and co-leader of the Green Youth from 2017 to 2019.

Early life and education

Lang was raised by a single mother, who was a social worker and worked at a women's shelter.[1] Her father was the sculptor Eckhart Dietz, who died in 2019.[2] After graduating from the Hölderlin-Gymnasium Nürtingen in 2012, Lang began studying law, first at the Heidelberg University and later at the Humboldt University of Berlin, eventually dropping out in 2019 without graduating.[3]

Political career

Lang joined the Green Youth in 2012 at the age of 18. From 2014 to 2015, Lang was speaker for the Campus Greens, the Greens' student association. She was a member of the district executive of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Greens from 2015 to 2016. In October 2015, she became an assessor in the federal board of the Green Youth, and in October 2017 was elected co-spokesperson at the federal congress. In November 2019, she was elected as deputy chairwoman of the Greens and spokeswoman for women's policy.[4][5]

Lang stood in the 2019 European Parliament election in 25th place on the Greens list, but was not elected.[6] She successfully ran for the Bundestag in the 2021 German federal election in tenth place on the Baden-Württemberg list. She also stood in the Backnang – Schwäbisch Gmünd constituency and placed fifth with 11.5% of votes. She became the first openly bisexual member of the Bundestag.[7] Lang is a member of the Committee for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth and a deputy member of the Committee for Labor and Social Affairs.[4]

In the negotiations to form a coalition government between the SPD, Greens, and FDP following the 2021 federal elections, Lang led her party's delegation in the working group on equality; her co-chairs from the other parties were Petra Köpping (SPD) and Herbert Mertin (FDP).[8]

On 29 January 2022, Lang was elected unopposed at chairwoman of the Greens, along with Omid Nouripour. They succeeded Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, who stepped down after joining the Scholz cabinet.[9][10]

Controversy

In early 2022, Lang became one of the six subjects of an embezzlement investigation launched by the Berlin public prosecutor’s office into the entire leadership board of the Green Party over the payment of so-called ‘corona bonuses,’ which had been paid in 2020 to all employees of the party’s federal office and at the same time to its board.[11]

Political positions

Lang is considered a representative of the left wing of the party. Her main areas of concerns are social justice and climate policy. She also supports feminism, body positivity, and queer politics.[5][12][13][14] She is critical of individualist approaches to policy; for example, to tackle climate change, she opposes focusing on individual consumption and advocates phasing out coal and ending subsidies to environmentally damaging industries. She calls the individualisation of these issues a "ploy to divert attention from the culpability of corporations and political responsibility."[15]

Lang's political goals include an increase in Hartz IV payments, better pay for caregivers, limits on precariat employment, and more support for people living in rural areas.[16] She supports the admission of climate refugees;[17] in particular, she proposes offering EU citizenship to residents of Pacific island nations whose territory is severely threatened by rising sea levels.[18]

Lang supports arms deliveries to Ukraine in the wake of the Russian incursion, calling in the fall of 2022 "that we need to deliver more weapons, that we need to speed up."[19]

Personal life

Lang has lived in Berlin since 2014. She is bisexual, and became the first openly bisexual Bundestag member upon her election in 2021.[7] On 25 March 2023, she announced her engagement with the mathematician Florian Wilsch working at Leibniz University Hannover.[20][21]

References

  1. ↑ Heier, Anne-Kathrin (1 September 2021). "Ricarda Lang: "Ich will mich nicht an den Hass gewöhnen!"" [Ricarda Lang: "I don't want to get used to hate!"]. Edition F (in German).
  2. ↑ "Ricarda Lang wants to represent the Greens in the Schwäbisch Gmund/Backnang constituency in the Bundestag". Rems-Zeitung (in German). 16 June 2020.
  3. ↑ "Ricarda Lang". Alliance 90/The Greens (in German). Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Ricarda Lang". Bundestag (in German). Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  5. 1 2 Schulte, Ulrich (15 November 2019). "Ricarda Lang becomes the new vice chair of the Greens". Die Tageszeitung (in German). p. 2.
  6. ↑ "Ska Keller and Sven Giegold are the top green duo for the 2019 European elections". Alliance 90/The Greens (in German). 10 November 2018. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019.
  7. 1 2 "Ricarda Lang is the first openly bisexual member of the Bundestag". Queer.de (in German). 26 September 2021.
  8. ↑ "Traffic light coalition: All the negotiators, working groups and topics at a glance". Frankfurter Rundschau (in German). 22 October 2021.
  9. ↑ "German Green Party elects new leaders at volatile moment". Deutsche Welle. 29 January 2022.
  10. ↑ "Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour elected to lead German Greens". Euronews. 29 January 2022.
  11. ↑ Hans von der Burchard (19 January 2022), Senior German Green politicians under investigation over ‘corona bonuses’ Politico Europe.
  12. ↑ "Ricarda Lang: This is what the new Greens leader wants to achieve". Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 29 January 2022.
  13. ↑ "Greens deputy Ricarda Lang would like to set new emphasis as chairwoman". Badische Neueste Nachrichten (in German). 11 January 2022.
  14. ↑ Naue, Julia (18 December 2020). "Why fat people aren't grateful for every weight loss tip". Die Welt (in German).
  15. ↑ "The liberation of Ricarda Lang". Der Spiegel (in German). 11 September 2012.
  16. ↑ "Where the new Greens want to go". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). 29 January 2022.
  17. ↑ "Why the Green Youth demands that climate refugees should have a right to asylum". Der Spiegel (in German). 3 August 2018.
  18. ↑ ""Those were targeted, organized attacks"". Jetzt.de (in German). 7 August 2018.
  19. ↑ "ZEIT ONLINE | Lesen Sie zeit.de mit Werbung oder im PUR-Abo. Sie haben die Wahl". www.zeit.de. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  20. ↑ "Grünen-Chefin Ricarda Lang hat sich verlobt". rnd.de (in German). 26 March 2023. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  21. ↑ "Mit Uni-Mathematiker: Grünen-Vorsitzende Ricarda Lang gibt auf Twitter Verlobung bekannt". focus.de (in German). 25 March 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
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